January 10, 2018

Pet Products: Who Buys What?

All those years ago when I was a child and I wanted a pet so desperately - a dog, I'll admit it, I wanted a dog - I never thought about what having a pet, a dog, meant. Not beyond the love and affection, and the bond I knew I would have with my dog. I didn't know about the human-animal bond (few folks did way back then, before there was toothpaste or electricity - you know I'm joking about that part, right?), and I assumed we'd feed the dog whatever dog food was available at our local supermarket. I think it was IGA.

Time goes by. We live. We learn. I am openly studying the human-animal bond now, not just between dogs and people but between all pets and all people. And, I know a lot more about good nutrition.

But wait, she said, as if doing a cable TV sales commercial. There's more!

What about all the other products folks buy for pets? Oh, seriously! Back in those childhood days I never...never...NEVER considered buying toys for my dog! The dog I didn't have but wanted so desperately. Even when I got a dog, I didn't think about toys! Or, treats. I mean, treats? Little bits of my dinner were treats enough!

What about veterinary care? Other than rabies shots, I didn't think about veterinary care. Distemper? Never heard of it. Nails being clipped? Really? Who did that? Baths, grooming, TEETH CLEANING???

I'm sorry - wait, no I'm not. I didn't think of those things because... neither did anyone else. We're talking 1962ish, here. I suspect some of my ignorance was built on lack of education. Where would I learn about all of that, except at my vet's office and we never went there. Not more than once a year for that regular checkup. Maybe we didn't even go that much. Maybe it was once every three years for the rabies vaccination. I wonder now how my vet stayed in business. Because we were not different than others, we were the same. Animals, pets, were not things you spent money on if you didn't have to.

Today, we have the Pet Business Professor to tell us not only how much is spent on pets, but who spends it and what they spend it on. Oh my!

Here is how the Pet Business Professor opened in his pet products spending report - do go over to his site and read the entire post he created, please:

We looked at the Total Pet Spending for 2016 and its key demographic sources. Now it’s time to start drilling down into the data. We will ultimately look at each individual segment but the first stop in our journey of discovery will be Pet Products – Pet Food and Supplies. Taken as a total, this classification accounted for $42.34B (63%) of the $67.29 in Total Pet spending in 2016. This was down $2.05B (-4.5%) from the $44.39B that was spent in 2015. We have seen that this drop in spending came largely as a result of intense value shopping for premium foods. It’s also important to remember that although the products’ share of spending fell slightly from (65%) in 2015, Food and Supplies are the industry segments that are most familiar to consumers. They are stocked in over 200,000 U.S. retail outlets, including over 17,000 Vet Clinics, plus the internet. Every week over 20,000,000 U.S. households buy food and/or treats for their pet children.

Pet Food spending dropped by $2.99B in 2016 but at the same time spending on Pet Supplies spending increased by $0.94B. We’ll bundle them together and see where the bulk of Pet Products spending comes from?

I see how the food spending could go down, with such a variety of pet food out there and deals offered every day, but we only shop at Only Natural Pet, in Boulder, and would be reluctant to change foods even if we had to spend more. I know most of the people I am friends with in the pet space, via BlogPaws, feel the same. But, there are still folks who cannot afford the 'specialty' foods or raw, and they probably account for a lot of that spending drop.

I understand the pet supplies result, also. We, at my house, buy more supplies now than ever. Well, wait, that's wrong. We buy less because we have one pet, Emily, when not that long ago we had four pets.

That's all I'm sharing directly from the site. Go read the article yourself. Get informed. This site does a great job of teaching us what we don't know, but we should. Why? Because the human-animal bond is all about love, care, and a happy life. And the content on the Pet Business Professor's site adds education to the mix. The more we educate ourselves, the more we learn about our beloved pets, the deeper goes the human-animal bond. (yes, the site is for pet companies, those in business to make a profit on pet products, but hey...consumers could learn a good bit from this site, a good bit about the quality of the products they buy. Just saying...)

I'm so honored!

Let's meet at BlogPaws!

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